Panel

Revi­tal­iz­ing Applied Anthropology
85th Annu­al Meeting
March 25–29, 2025
Hilton Port­land Down­town Port­land, OR

The SfAA Annu­al Meet­ing pro­vides an invalu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty for schol­ars, prac­tic­ing social sci­en­tists, and stu­dents from a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines and orga­ni­za­tions to dis­cuss their work and brain­storm for the future. It is more than just a con­fer­ence: it’s a rich place to trade ideas, meth­ods, and prac­ti­cal solu­tions, as well as enter the life­world of oth­er pro­fes­sion­als. SfAA mem­bers come from a vari­ety of dis­ci­plines — anthro­pol­o­gy, soci­ol­o­gy, eco­nom­ics, busi­ness, plan­ning, med­i­cine, nurs­ing, law, and oth­er relat­ed social/behavioral sci­ences. Make 2025 the year you’ll spend a few days pre­sent­ing, learn­ing, and net­work­ing in Port­land, OR, with the SfAA.

More info

Permalink

CfP for a Pan­el on „Eth­i­cal frame­works, health-seek­ing and care path­ways in super­di­verse environments”
ASA UK con­fer­ence in Birmingham
8–11th April 2025

Short Abstract:

This pan­el explores ethno­graph­i­cal­ly how ethics shapes health-seek­ing behav­iours and how health ser­vices may design care path­ways that accom­mo­date diverse moral world­views. Eth­i­cal frame­works and lived expe­ri­ence ‑espe­cial­ly in sit­u­a­tions of pre­car­i­ty- shape how peo­ple nav­i­gate health services.

Long Abstract

Eth­i­cal frame­works, health-seek­ing and care-path­ways in super­di­verse environments.

To pro­vide ade­quate ser­vices, health providers and civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions need for their care path­ways to be adapt­ed to the real­i­ty of health-seek­ing prac­tices. In turn, in super­di­verse envi­ron­ments, advice and health-seek­ing dif­fers between social groups (accord­ing to gen­der, income, race and eth­nic­i­ty, migra­tion sta­tus and so on). In cir­cum­stances of extreme pre­car­i­ty – cost of liv­ing cri­sis, in-pover­ty employ­ment, racism and dis­crim­i­na­tion, etc.- uncer­tain­ty and lived expe­ri­ence play a major role (Mac­Gre­gor et al 2020).

Peo­ple do not behave in a pre­dict­ed lin­ear fash­ion sole­ly accord­ing to their socio-demo­graph­ic char­ac­ter­is­tics, but rather expe­ri­ence pre­car­i­ous life and deal with emer­gent and unex­pect­ed chal­lenges and pri­or­i­ties of an uncer­tain envi­ron­ment (Al-Moham­mad and Pelu­so 2012). In turn peo­ple prac­tice moral nav­i­ga­tion, adapt­ing and reassess­ing their val­ues, pri­or­i­ties and health deci­sions as their ther­a­peu­tic itin­er­ary unfolds, rather than fol­low­ing fixed path­ways (White and Jha 2021). 

People’s eth­i­cal frame­works – how they behave as eth­i­cal agents, moral­ly bound to oth­ers (their peers, their fam­i­lies, etc.)- shape how peo­ple seek health advice and their deci­sions when engag­ing with health providers and pub­lic ser­vices (Ripoll et al 2022).

This pan­el is seek­ing ethno­graph­ic papers that con­tribute to the fol­low­ing questions:

– How do people’s moral and eth­i­cal demands shape their health-seek­ing practices?
– Do peo­ple face moral conun­drums when decid­ing to make par­tic­u­lar deci­sions in health care or in and how do they
– What role does uncer­tain­ty and emer­gence play in this moral nav­i­ga­tion of health services?
– How do health ser­vice providers take into account people’s moral lives when assess­ing people’s nav­i­ga­tion of health services?
– Can care path­ways be adapt­ed to the dif­fer­ent moral world­views of the peo­ple they wish to sup­port through the health system?

This pan­el will aim to bring togeth­er ethno­graph­ic insights from the field of anthro­pol­o­gy of ethics with applied anthro­pol­o­gy in the con­text of health.

Ref­er­ences:

Al-Moham­mad, H., & Pelu­so, D. (2012). Ethics and the “rough ground” of the every­day: the over­lap­pings of life in postin­va­sion Iraq. HAU: Jour­nal of Ethno­graph­ic The­o­ry, 2(2), 42–58.

Mac­Gre­gor, H., Ripoll, S., & Leach, M. (2020). Dis­ease out­breaks: nav­i­gat­ing uncer­tain­ties in pre­pared­ness and response. Tay­lor and Francis.

Ripoll, S., Ouvri­er, A., Hryn­ick, T., & Schmidt-Sane, M. (2022). Vac­cine Equi­ty in Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Urban Set­tings. A com­par­a­tive analy­sis of local gov­ern­ment and com­mu­ni­ty action, con­tex­tu­alised polit­i­cal economies, and moral frame­works in Mar­seille and London

White, S. C., & Jha, S. (2021). Moral nav­i­ga­tion and child fos­ter­ing in Chi­awa, Zam­bia. Africa, 91(2), 249–269.

Permalink

Eth­i­cal frame­works, health-seek­ing and care-path­ways in super­di­verse environments
Pan­el for the ASA UK con­fer­ence in Birmingham
8–11^th April 2025

We’re aim­ing to bring togeth­er ethno­graph­ic insights from the field of anthro­pol­o­gy of ethics with applied anthro­pol­o­gy in the con­text of health.

Short Abstract

This pan­el explores ethno­graph­i­cal­ly how ethics shapes health-seek­ing behav­iours and how health ser­vices may design care path­ways that accom­mo­date diverse moral world­views. Eth­i­cal frame­works and lived expe­ri­ence ‑espe­cial­ly in sit­u­a­tions of pre­car­i­ty- shape how peo­ple nav­i­gate health services.

Long Abstract

Eth­i­cal frame­works, health-seek­ing and care-path­ways in super­di­verse environments.

To pro­vide ade­quate ser­vices, health providers and civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions need for their care path­ways to be adapt­ed to the real­i­ty of health-seek­ing prac­tices.  In turn, in super­di­verse envi­ron­ments, advice and health-seek­ing dif­fers between social groups (accord­ing to gen­der, income, race and eth­nic­i­ty, migra­tion sta­tus and so on). In cir­cum­stances of extreme pre­car­i­ty – cost of liv­ing cri­sis, in-pover­ty employ­ment, racism and dis­crim­i­na­tion, etc.- uncer­tain­ty and lived expe­ri­ence play a major role (Mac­Gre­gor et al 2020).

Peo­ple do not behave in a pre­dict­ed lin­ear fash­ion sole­ly accord­ing to their socio-demo­graph­ic char­ac­ter­is­tics, but rather expe­ri­ence pre­car­i­ous life and deal with emer­gent and unex­pect­ed chal­lenges and pri­or­i­ties of an uncer­tain envi­ron­ment (Al-Moham­mad and Pelu­so 2012). In turn peo­ple prac­tice moral nav­i­ga­tion, adapt­ing and reassess­ing their val­ues, pri­or­i­ties and health deci­sions as their ther­a­peu­tic itin­er­ary unfolds, rather than fol­low­ing fixed path­ways (White and Jha 2021).

People’s eth­i­cal frame­works – how they behave as eth­i­cal agents, moral­ly bound to oth­ers (their peers, their fam­i­lies, etc.)- shape how peo­ple seek health advice and their deci­sions when engag­ing with health providers and pub­lic ser­vices (Ripoll et al 2022).

This pan­el is seek­ing ethno­graph­ic papers that con­tribute to the fol­low­ing questions:

• How do people’s moral and eth­i­cal demands shape their health-seek­ing practices?
• Do peo­ple face moral conun­drums when decid­ing to make par­tic­u­lar deci­sions in health care or in and how do they
• What role does uncer­tain­ty and emer­gence play in this moral nav­i­ga­tion of health services?
• How do health ser­vice providers take into account people’s moral lives when assess­ing people’s nav­i­ga­tion of health services?
• Can care path­ways be adapt­ed to the dif­fer­ent moral world­views of the peo­ple they wish to sup­port through the health system?

This pan­el will aim to bring togeth­er ethno­graph­ic insights from the field of anthro­pol­o­gy of ethics with applied anthro­pol­o­gy in the con­text of health.

To pro­pose a paper, please do so through the ASA web­site. https://theasa.org/conferences/asa2025/programme#15931

Ref­er­ences

Al-Moham­mad, H., & Pelu­so, D. (2012). Ethics and the “rough ground” of the every­day: the over­lap­pings of life in postin­va­sion Iraq. HAU: Jour­nal of Ethno­graph­ic The­o­ry, 2(2), 42–58.

Mac­Gre­gor, H., Ripoll, S., & Leach, M. (2020). Dis­ease out­breaks: nav­i­gat­ing uncer­tain­ties in pre­pared­ness and response. Tay­lor and Francis.

Ripoll, S., Ouvri­er, A., Hryn­ick, T., & Schmidt-Sane, M. (2022). Vac­cine Equi­ty in Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Urban Set­tings. A com­par­a­tive analy­sis of local gov­ern­ment and com­mu­ni­ty action, con­tex­tu­alised polit­i­cal economies, and moral frame­works in Mar­seille and London

White, S. C., & Jha, S. (2021). Moral nav­i­ga­tion and child fos­ter­ing in Chi­awa, Zam­bia. Africa, 91(2), 249–269.

Permalink

„Eth­i­cal frame­works, health-seek­ing and care-path­ways in super­di­verse environments”
8–11.04.2025
Birm­ing­ham, UK
More Info: https://theasa.org/conferences/asa2025/programme#15931

Permalink

„Social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion: Entan­gled con­cepts on the move in med­ical research, prac­tice, and policy”
Pan­el at the upcom­ing ASA 2025 con­fer­ence tak­ing place in
8–11 April
Birmingham

Social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion: Entan­gled con­cepts on the move in med­ical research, prac­tice, and pol­i­cy will be a pan­el exam­in­ing the entan­gling of social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion in med­ical research, prac­tice, and pol­i­cy, broad­ly con­ceived (pun intend­ed). We invite anthro­po­log­i­cal works which con­sid­er these rela­tions today, espe­cial­ly via the social repro­duc­tion of kin­ship, par­ent­hood, or tech­nolo­gies of relat­ed­ness. The long abstract with more infor­ma­tion is pro­vid­ed below.

The dead­line for abstracts is Novem­ber 18th. Abstracts may be sub­mit­ted by fol­low­ing this link.

Con­venors:

Tay­lor Riley (Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege London)
Olga Dolet­skaya (Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege London)

Long abstract:

Bio­log­i­cal and social repro­duc­tion are deeply entan­gled (Rapp and Gins­burg 1991) and repro­duc­tion is always a con­cept on the move. ‘Social repro­duc­tion’ has been tak­en up wide­ly in fem­i­nist research as both the under­val­ued labour that sus­tains human life and the labour that repro­duces social sys­tems and rela­tions. What repro­duc­tion and kin­ship are bio­log­i­cal­ly is co-repro­duced with their legal, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al mean­ings. As assist­ed repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies (ARTs) become, though uneven­ly, more ordi­nary (Franklin 2013), entwined con­cepts of social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion con­tin­ue to travel.

In their close atten­tion to human expe­ri­ences and rela­tions, anthro­po­log­i­cal approach­es, such as bioethnog­ra­phy (Roberts and Sanz 2017), are well-suit­ed to trace these trav­els today. Pop­u­la­tion stud­ies such as birth cohorts are invest­ed in the busi­ness of bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion along­side the social repro­duc­tion of par­tic­i­pa­tion that keeps stud­ies alive. The pro­lif­er­a­tion of ARTs like in vit­ro game­to­ge­n­e­sis will neces­si­tate social­ly repro­duced changes to con­cepts of relat­ed­ness. Repro­duc­tive jus­tice is impli­cat­ed in the above and oth­er examples—how do these social repro­duc­tions deny or grant access to per­son­hood or care, espe­cial­ly for those who are mar­gin­al­ized? Can kin­ship be post-genom­ic in these con­texts, or only elsewhere?

We invite works using ethno­graph­ic meth­ods to dis­cuss bio­log­i­cal and social repro­duc­tion with ref­er­ence to bio­med­ical dis­cours­es and/or insti­tu­tions, health poli­cies, pop­u­la­tion research, and/or the worlds of sci­ence and med­i­cine, broad­ly defined. Papers could e.g. focus on:

• Stud­ies of conception/birth, maternal/infant health, fam­i­lies, and/or parenting
• Genet­ic or epi­ge­net­ic research and/or policies
• Repro­duc­tive health research and/or policies
• ARTs
• Med­ical­ized fer­til­i­ty and/or infertility

Permalink

Pan­el on „Social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion: Entan­gled con­cepts on the move in med­ical research, prac­tice, and policy”
ASA 2025 con­fer­ence tak­ing place in
8–11 April
Birmingham

Social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion: Entan­gled con­cepts on the move in med­ical research, prac­tice, and pol­i­cy will be a pan­el exam­in­ing the entan­gling of social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion in med­ical research, prac­tice, and pol­i­cy, broad­ly con­ceived (pun intend­ed). We invite anthro­po­log­i­cal works which con­sid­er these rela­tions today, espe­cial­ly via the social repro­duc­tion of kin­ship, par­ent­hood, or tech­nolo­gies of relat­ed­ness. The long abstract with more infor­ma­tion is pro­vid­ed below.

The dead­line for abstracts is Novem­ber 18th. Abstracts may be sub­mit­ted by fol­low­ing this link: https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/asa2025/panel/15950

Pan­el Title:

Social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion: Entan­gled con­cepts on the move in med­ical research, prac­tice, and policy

Con­venors:

Tay­lor Riley (Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege London)
Olga Dolet­skaya (Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege London)

Long abstract:

Bio­log­i­cal and social repro­duc­tion are deeply entan­gled (Rapp and Gins­burg 1991) and repro­duc­tion is always a con­cept on the move. ‘Social repro­duc­tion’ has been tak­en up wide­ly in fem­i­nist research as both the under­val­ued labour that sus­tains human life and the labour that repro­duces social sys­tems and rela­tions. What repro­duc­tion and kin­ship are bio­log­i­cal­ly is co-repro­duced with their legal, eco­nom­ic, and cul­tur­al mean­ings. As assist­ed repro­duc­tive tech­nolo­gies (ARTs) become, though uneven­ly, more ordi­nary (Franklin 2013), entwined con­cepts of social and bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion con­tin­ue to travel.

In their close atten­tion to human expe­ri­ences and rela­tions, anthro­po­log­i­cal approach­es, such as bioethnog­ra­phy (Roberts and Sanz 2017), are well-suit­ed to trace these trav­els today. Pop­u­la­tion stud­ies such as birth cohorts are invest­ed in the busi­ness of bio­log­i­cal repro­duc­tion along­side the social repro­duc­tion of par­tic­i­pa­tion that keeps stud­ies alive. The pro­lif­er­a­tion of ARTs like in vit­ro game­to­ge­n­e­sis will neces­si­tate social­ly repro­duced changes to con­cepts of relat­ed­ness. Repro­duc­tive jus­tice is impli­cat­ed in the above and oth­er examples—how do these social repro­duc­tions deny or grant access to per­son­hood or care, espe­cial­ly for those who are mar­gin­al­ized? Can kin­ship be post-genom­ic in these con­texts, or only elsewhere?

We invite works using ethno­graph­ic meth­ods to dis­cuss bio­log­i­cal and social repro­duc­tion with ref­er­ence to bio­med­ical dis­cours­es and/or insti­tu­tions, health poli­cies, pop­u­la­tion research, and/or the worlds of sci­ence and med­i­cine, broad­ly defined. Papers could e.g. focus on:

- Stud­ies of conception/birth, maternal/infant health, fam­i­lies, and/or parenting
– Genet­ic or epi­ge­net­ic research and/or policies
– Repro­duc­tive health research and/or policies
– ARTs
– Med­ical­ized fer­til­i­ty and/or infertility

Permalink

Call for paper to the pan­el on the top­ic „Cli­mate change, island change, and well­be­ing in small island communities”
Health, Envi­ron­ment, and AnThro­pol­o­gy (HEAT)
Durham
23 – 24 April 2025
co-organ­ised by Durham and Edin­burgh Uni­ver­si­ties and spon­sored by the Roy­al Anthro­po­log­i­cal Soci­ety (RAI)

CALL FOR PAPERS

Pan­el: “Cli­mate change, island change, and well­be­ing in small island communities”

Sur­round­ed by sea, islands have long been seen as remote and iso­lat­ed by neces­si­ty, though island life in prac­tice involves move­ment both out of and back towards the island (Kohn, 2006; Nic Craith, 2020). With­out enough atten­tion being paid to the needs of island com­mu­ni­ties in deci­sion- and pol­i­cy-mak­ing affect­ing them, islands are also fre­quent­ly asso­ci­at­ed with vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty (Kot­sira, 2021), among oth­ers rais­ing con­cerns about their sus­tain­abil­i­ty and resilience (Rat­ter, 2017). If island life is already chal­leng­ing as such, what is the fur­ther impact of cli­mate change and cli­mate-induced dis­as­ters on the men­tal health and well­be­ing of islanders, par­tic­u­lar­ly in small island communities?

This pan­el invites papers dis­cussing ethno­graph­ic exam­ples and pri­ma­ry research cov­er­ing aspects such as:

‑Local under­stand­ings of men­tal health and well­be­ing, and whether/how they are impact­ed by the cli­mate cri­sis and the ways islanders respond to chang­ing circumstances.
Access to men­tal health ser­vices and ser­vice gaps to be addressed so small island pop­u­la­tions fac­ing the by-prod­ucts of cli­mate change are supported.
‑How pre­con­cep­tions of remote­ness and iso­la­tion, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and resilience are chal­lenged by the cir­cum­stances cre­at­ed by the cli­mate crisis
local­ly, and their impact on men­tal health and wellbeing.
‑The role of cli­mate change in con­cep­tu­al­i­sa­tions of the future on/of small islands, feel­ings of uncer­tain­ty, and their impact on islanders’ men­tal health and
wellbeing.
‑How the men­tal health and well­be­ing of researchers are affect­ed while doing research on small islands impact­ed by the cli­mate cri­sis, includ­ing cop­ing mech­a­nisms and
research strategies.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION GUIDANCE

The dead­line for sub­mis­sions is 13 Jan­u­ary 2025.

Please sub­mit your paper abstract through the con­fer­ence por­tal here: https://pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham/abstract/info

Once you access the portal:

Choose from the drop-down menu the event you wish to attend: Health, Envi­ron­ment, and AnThro­pol­o­gy (HEAT) 2025.
Fill in your per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al details.
Pro­vide the title of the paper you wish to present.
Select talk from the list of pre­sen­ta­tion options.
Upload your paper abstract. Your abstract must me no more than 250 words, and attached as a .doc or .pdf file (max­i­mum upload size 10 MB).
Select from the drop-down menu the title of the pan­el you wish to join: Cli­mate change, island change, and well­be­ing in small island communities.

You do not have to be an RAI or ASA mem­ber to pro­pose a paper, but please note that only papers sub­mit­ted via con­fer­ence por­tal will be considered.
More infor­ma­tion about the con­fer­ence can be found on the web­site: https://pay.durham.ac.uk/event-durham/health-environment-and-anthropology-heat-2024

Permalink

Pan­el on “Influ­ence of Chang­ing Ecolo­gies on Health and Human Adap­ta­tion at Local, Nation­al and Glob­al level”
HEAT 2025
Durham Uni­ver­si­ty (UK)
April 23–24, 2025
Dead­line 13 Jan­u­ary 2025

Pan­el Abstract:
In Anthro­pol­o­gy, research on inter­ac­tions and the com­plex net­work of humans, health and envi­ron­ment start­ed ear­ly with the cul­tur­al ecol­o­gy the­o­ry and med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy in the 1930s and 1960s respec­tive­ly. The focus theme of these approach­es had been adap­ta­tion includ­ing fac­tors of genet­ics, phys­i­ol­o­gy, cul­ture and the approach­es assumed that health is deter­mined by envi­ron­men­tal adap­ta­tion and that dis­eases arise from envi­ron­men­tal imbal­ances. Fur­ther stud­ies are required to under­stand the con­sump­tion pat­terns which are asso­ci­at­ed with health risks affect­ing human biol­o­gy, ecol­o­gy and the epi­demi­ol­o­gy of emerg­ing and reemerg­ing dis­eases. As researchers, the press­ing ques­tion is the present sce­nario of region­al, nation­al and glob­al affairs such as cli­mate change, food inse­cu­ri­ty, envi­ron­men­tal health, demo­graph­ic shifts, etc. Though there are ongo­ing con­sis­tent efforts to iden­ti­fy strate­gies and bring out solu­tions, yet, it requires exten­sive stud­ies on eco­log­i­cal changes and the asso­ci­at­ed health dis­par­i­ties. With this back­drop, the pan­el invites papers/studies con­duct­ed with­in (but not lim­it­ed to) South Asia to explore the cross-cul­tur­al impact of eco­log­i­cal changes on pop­u­la­tions. It seeks to high­light health dis­par­i­ties aris­ing from these changes and have an in-depth dis­cus­sion on region­al-spe­cif­ic health impli­ca­tions, as well as include trends in research method­ol­o­gy. The pan­el, in con­clu­sion, will be address­ing the ‘Ecol­o­gy-Human Adap­ta­tion Imbal­ance’ and will try to iden­ti­fy the loop­holes and bring out prob­a­ble alter­na­tives for region-spe­cif­ic populations.

The pan­el will explore the extent to which chang­ing envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions bring about adverse health con­se­quences and adap­tive imbal­ance under var­i­ous eco­log­i­cal con­di­tions. The pan­el invites papers on the theme of ‘Ecol­o­gy-Human Adap­ta­tion Imbal­ance’ in the con­text of the fol­low­ing areas-

Tra­di­tion­al and mar­gin­alised communities.

Urban ecology.

Food environment.

Demog­ra­phy and access to Pub­lic Health. 

Age­ing and Envi­ron­ment Interaction

Adap­ta­tion to eco­log­i­cal vulnerabilities.

You can sub­mit your abstracts in the Abstract Man­age­ment Por­tal on or before 13 Jan­u­ary 2025. The abstract should not be more than 250 words and the above link pro­vides fur­ther infor­ma­tion on the process of abstract sub­mis­sion. All papers must be sub­mit­ted via the sub­mis­sion point on the con­fer­ence web­site (below). This should be uploaded in .doc or .pdf for­mat. Pro­pos­als must con­sist of:

Title of the pan­el you wish join;

The title of the paper you wish to present;

An abstract of no more than 250 words.

Paper pro­pos­als will be reviewed by pan­el convenor(s) and a deci­sion on whether the paper has been accept­ed or reject­ed will come from them.

Only papers sub­mit­ted via the link below will be con­sid­ered by pan­el convenors.

Web­site Link- Event Durham – Abstract Management 

Rules

You do not have to be an RAI or ASA mem­ber to pro­pose a paper.

You may only present once at the con­fer­ence. Pan­el chairs and dis­cus­sants may also present a paper on a dif­fer­ent panel.

All those attend­ing the con­fer­ence, includ­ing dis­cus­sants and chairs, will need to reg­is­ter and pay to attend.

For any query, kind­ly con­tact: karvileena@gauhati.ac.in

Permalink

CFP below for a pan­el on „Inti­mate medi­a­tion: hor­mones and endocrine dis­rup­tion across species, place, and time”
2025 Health, Envi­ron­ment, and Anthro­pol­o­gy (HEAT) Conference
Durham Uni­ver­si­ty, UK
April 23–24, 2025
Co-organ­ised by Durham and Edin­burgh uni­ver­si­ties and spon­sored by the Roy­al Anthro­po­log­i­cal Soci­ety (RAI)

The call is sched­uled to close on 13 Jan­u­ary, although we will keep this under review and extend if it seems necessary. 

Abstracts can be sub­mit­ted via the Abstract Man­age­ment por­tal. The web­site includes guid­ance and a list of pan­els a pro­pos­er can select from. 

Pan­el #21: „Inti­mate medi­a­tion: hor­mones and endocrine dis­rup­tion across species, place, and time”

Key­words: hor­mones, chem­i­cals, endocrine dis­rup­tion, EDCs, plas­tics, pre­scrip­tion drugs, side effects, alter­life, green chemistry

This pan­el invites con­sid­er­a­tion of endocrine dis­rupt­ing chem­i­cals (EDCs) as a key link between health and envi­ron­ment. EDCs are syn­thet­ic chem­i­cals that inter­act with the hor­mon­al mes­sag­ing process­es of humans and oth­er ani­mals, com­mon­ly found in every­day items, notably many plas­tics. These ubiq­ui­tous sub­stances tran­scend local envi­ron­ments through weath­er pat­terns and indus­tri­al chains, defy con­sumer ratio­nales of per­son­al pro­tec­tion through „organ­ic” or „green” choic­es, and have effects that are unpre­dictable and may remain latent for gen­er­a­tions. EDCs are now con­sti­tu­tive of our bod­ies, com­pli­cat­ing any ideas about an un-altered „pure” state, and have been linked to health issues as dis­parate as dia­betes, endometrio­sis, asth­ma, ear­ly puber­ty, obe­si­ty, and gen­der dys­pho­ria. There is good rea­son to con­sid­er hor­mon­al­ly-active phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals as EDCs, par­tic­u­lar­ly giv­en how they can exceed the consumer’s bod­i­ly sys­tem and enter into water­ways and oth­er shared envi­ron­ments. EDCs trou­ble stan­dard polit­i­cal posi­tions around indi­vid­ual auton­o­my and choice, com­pli­cat­ing con­ser­v­a­tive impuls­es towards pro­tec­tion­ism and immu­ni­ty. Study­ing „the expo­some” trou­bles stan­dard ways of mak­ing knowl­edge about chem­i­cals: chem­i­cal effects come into being in inter­ac­tion with one anoth­er instead of as iso­lat­ed vari­ables, and tim­ing of expo­sure often mat­ters more than dosage (counter to the tox­i­co­log­i­cal max­im ‚the dose makes the poi­son’). Add to this the lob­by­ing pres­sure from petro­le­um and chem­i­cal indus­tries, and it is clear why it can be pro­found­ly dif­fi­cult to acknowl­edge and take action about EDCs. Yet, some med­ical research cen­ters, activist groups, artists, and even indus­tri­al ini­tia­tives around „green chem­istry” are doing so. This nexus begs fur­ther anthro­po­log­i­cal inquiry. 

Permalink

Call for abstracts to a pan­el on „Scal­ing tox­ic expo­sure; inter­gen­er­a­tional respon­si­bil­i­ty, care and plan­e­tary health”
Health, Envi­ron­ment, and Anthro­pol­o­gy (HEAT) Conference
Durham Uni­ver­si­ty (UK)
April 23–24, 2025

The call is sched­uled to close on 13 January

If you are inter­est­ed, please sub­mit an abstract via the Abstract Man­age­ment por­tal. The web­site includes guid­ance on how papers should be sub­mit­ted and a drop down list of pan­els a pro­pos­er can select from. 

Details: Scal­ing tox­ic expo­sure; inter­gen­er­a­tional respon­si­bil­i­ty, care and plan­e­tary health 

Chem­i­cal expo­sure and their poten­tial tox­ic arrange­ments are inter­gen­er­a­tional, cross­ing lines of kin­ship and con­nect­ing rela­tions to mol­e­cules, mul­ti­ple bod­ies, ecolo­gies and social spaces through non-lin­ear tem­po­ral­i­ties. This presents sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for ethno­graph­ic research con­fronting scales of expo­sure in the con­text of plan­e­tary health, esca­lat­ing cli­mate and eco­log­i­cal crises, pro­found inequal­i­ty, and ongo­ing colo­nial for­ma­tions. In mil­i­tary cam­paigns dev­as­tat­ing lives, geno­cide brings eco­cide. There is a need to exam­ine the nov­el con­fig­u­ra­tions of inter­gen­er­a­tional respon­si­bil­i­ty, jus­tice and care which arise at these junc­tures, as they index pos­si­bil­i­ties for oth­er ways of life. This requires cre­ative ori­en­ta­tions to method, con­cepts and the­o­ry to address the com­plex tem­po­ral and spa­tial scales of tox­ic exposure. 

Our pan­el seeks con­tri­bu­tions from those engag­ing with chem­i­cal expo­sures and ques­tions of inter­gen­er­a­tional time and social rela­tions with­in anthro­pol­o­gy and/or in dia­logue with oth­er dis­ci­plines and those address­ing the method­olog­i­cal chal­lenges and con­cep­tu­al approach­es relat­ed to these themes. 

Our pan­el is guid­ed but not lim­it­ed to the fol­low­ing questions: 

-How can inter­gen­er­a­tional chem­i­cal expo­sure be exam­ined giv­en that tem­po­ral­i­ty of tox­i­c­i­ty is not linear?
‑What are the pos­si­bil­i­ties for action – for our­selves as researchers, for our research com­mu­ni­ties, and for wider groups entan­gled in these land­scapes – if con­ven­tion­al mech­a­nisms of causal­i­ty do not apply?
‑If the mate­ri­al­i­ty and laten­cy of chem­i­cal expo­sure artic­u­lates an absence in the present how can we exam­ine the per­va­sive and elu­sive­ness of toxicity?
‑What kinds of ethno­graph­ic (re)orientations are required to crit­i­cal­ly ori­ent to the mul­ti­ple tem­po­ral­i­ties of chem­i­cal tox­i­c­i­ty? What can the work of com­par­i­son facil­i­tate in exam­in­ing scales of tox­ic exposure?

Permalink